Stillleben mit blauer Flasche und gerupftem Huhn 1910

James Ensor made this still life with oil on canvas using dark greens and browns, punctuated by the cobalt blue of the bottle. The surface has this crumbly, clotted texture, like paint that's been worked and reworked. I imagine Ensor standing there in his studio, really getting into the nitty-gritty of depicting these objects. I wonder what the process was like for him. How long did that plucked chicken sit there? Did he have to shoo away the flies while he painted? The marks feel so alive, like they're capturing the energy of the scene. Look at how he renders the dead chicken. It reminds me of Soutine's carcasses, where the brushstrokes are like a frantic dance, embodying the raw, visceral quality of the subject matter. It's all about the conversation between artists, right? We’re always looking at what came before, riffing off each other's ideas, pushing the boundaries of what painting can be. It's not about answers, it's about the questions we ask along the way.